Sorry for the delay but access to computers isn’t quite as easy as hoped…this reporting may be a bit muddled but bear with me eh ? anyway, New York has been and gone but what a stay we had. We arrived late into NY as our second United flight was cancelled after we had taken off on our first flight - on which they sat us separately…. so we arrived late into NY and hit the peak hour…squished ourselves onto the bus and wound our way to Broadway..where we alighted and then trudged towards the HI(hostel)… we weren’t real happy to hear that they wanted us to check in and out every day as they were short of rooms - we had booked…. hmm anyway, we almost gave up after that first night as we were in a 12 bed dorm(which was ok - Glenn was the only man) but the people above decided that playing indoor soccer all night and jumping off their beds onto the wooden floor would be fun…they were asked by security to stop but they only did for a few minutes so were all very tired and cranky the next morning. The owners shouted us brekky to make up for it but I was strong about asking for a better location and one room only for the next 4 nights. We moved to the top floor and into a 4 bed room - we had a guy called Chris in with us who was a lovely chap and we really enjoyed getting to know him. The other bed person came and went in the wee hours so we never actually met him….Chris was in NY to run the Marathon on the Sunday - he did really well too…did it in 2 hours 49 I believe….came in just after Lance Armstrong. He saw Glenn’s Live- strong armband and asked if we wanted another, which we were very happy about as we’ve wanted another for Em for a while. He then took his live strong shirt off and gave us that too !!!! amazingly generous…back to the first night though…we decided to splurge and had KFC for dinner…yum …they had different stuff too…like black beans and rice, corn bread. We had been up since 5.30am when Tim & Alison had taken us to the airport in Minneapolis, so we headed to bed early….
Second day - we headed out to walk around Harlem….with a guide called Ed. Funny old fellow but interesting and we wouldn’t have gone up there without someone who knew it. There are a lot of lovely old buildings and some places, I was amazed at the derelict state they were in - they would be heritage houses in Aust !! but I guess they have a lot more like that than us…. I felt reminded of Buenos Aires quite a bit throughout our time in NY. The buildings, the people, the shops, the food… all reminiscent of BA. I did feel that the city was a bit drab and run down? anyway, the Weds was also the 31st October, so we got to experience Halloween US style….and all I can say is that they really know how to get in the spirit of it !! We caught a train in to see the parade but we actually saw more up close costumes in the train…. boy, some people have good imaginations…. we caught one subway with Count Dracula…he had the whole works, including great makeup !! we even got given some candy on our way home. We have been doing so much walking and NY was no exception….we averaged about 10 - 15km per day. We took a number of walks through Central Park - we loved it !! lakes, gardens, dogs, a bench dedicated to the comedian Madeleine Kahn, heaps of very cute squirrels…did I mention that I think they are so cute and that I want one … ? Strawberry Fields, North Woods, the secret garden, with sculptures, etctetettc… we saw where John Lennon lived and was shot, the Guggenheim(which we didn’t enjoy much) shopped in Macy’s & Century 21’s department store - yep they have a store… bought too many baby clothes….ah well….went up the Empire State building which we strongly do not recommend…expensive and so many long queues and rude staff….we caught the Staten Island ferry, passed Ellis Island and the tall green lady, did more shopping and eating and drinking…all fun. Glenn found a new Malaysian rest. just around the corner and we ate there one night - so yummy and cheap. We cooked a few meals at the hostel and had brekky there, to save a bit of $$. We left NY pleased with all we’d done and seen and caught the bus down to Philadephia…a few times during our stay, we had tried to get in contact with our niece Katy - who lives in New Brunswick & had just had a wee baby on the 29th - Briella Paige - but to no avail. …we decided that it wasn’t meant to be this time… sob…..but stay tuned…for the next exciting episode….
